Hume | Page 2

Edinburgh in 1723--when he was a boy of twelve years of
age--but it is not known how long his studies were continued, and he
did not graduate. In 1727, at any rate, he was living at Ninewells, and
already possessed by that love of learning and thirst for literary fame,
which, as My Own Life tells us, was the ruling passion of his life and
the chief source of his enjoyments. A letter of this date, addressed to
his friend Michael Ramsay, is certainly a most singular production for a
boy of sixteen. After sundry quotations from Virgil the letter
proceeds:--
"The perfectly wise man that outbraves fortune, is much greater than
the husbandman who slips by her; and, indeed, this pastoral and
saturnian happiness I have in a great measure come at just now. I live

like a king, pretty much by myself, neither full of action nor
perturbation--molles somnos. This state, however, I can foresee is not to
be relied on. My peace of mind is not sufficiently confirmed by
philosophy to withstand the blows of fortune. This greatness and
elevation of soul is to be found only in study and contemplation. This
alone can teach us to look down on human accidents. You must allow
[me] to talk thus like a philosopher: 'tis a subject I think much on, and
could talk all day long of."
If David talked in this strain to his mother her tongue probably gave
utterance to "Bless the bairn!" and, in her private soul, the epithet
"wake-minded" may then have recorded itself. But, though few lonely,
thoughtful, studious boys of sixteen give vent to their thoughts in such
stately periods, it is probable that the brooding over an ideal is
commoner at this age, than fathers and mothers, busy with the cares of
practical life, are apt to imagine.
About a year later, Hume's family tried to launch him into the
profession of the law; but, as he tells us, "while they fancied I was
poring upon Voet and Vinnius, Cicero and Virgil were the authors
which I was secretly devouring," and the attempt seems to have come
to an abrupt termination. Nevertheless, as a very competent authority[2]
wisely remarks:--
"There appear to have been in Hume all the elements of which a good
lawyer is made: clearness of judgment, power of rapidly acquiring
knowledge, untiring industry, and dialectic skill: and if his mind had
not been preoccupied, he might have fallen into the gulf in which many
of the world's greatest geniuses lie buried--professional eminence; and
might have left behind him a reputation limited to the traditional
recollections of the Parliament house, or associated with important
decisions. He was through life an able, clear-headed, man of business,
and I have seen several legal documents, written in his own hand and
evidently drawn by himself. They stand the test of general professional
observation; and their writer, by preparing documents of facts of such a
character on his own responsibility, showed that he had considerable
confidence in his ability to adhere to the forms adequate for the

occasion. He talked of it as 'an ancient prejudice industriously
propagated by the dunces in all countries, that a man of genius is unfit
for business,' and he showed, in his general conduct through life, that
he did not choose to come voluntarily under this proscription."
Six years longer Hume remained at Ninewells before he made another
attempt to embark in a practical career--this time commerce--and with a
like result. For a few months' trial proved that kind of life, also, to be
hopelessly against the grain.
It was while in London, on his way to Bristol, where he proposed to
commence his mercantile life, that Hume addressed to some eminent
London physician (probably, as Mr. Burton suggests, Dr. George
Cheyne) a remarkable letter. Whether it was ever sent seems doubtful;
but it shows that philosophers as well as poets have their Werterian
crises, and it presents an interesting parallel to John Stuart Mill's record
of the corresponding period of his youth. The letter is too long to be
given in full, but a few quotations may suffice to indicate its
importance to those who desire to comprehend the man.
"You must know then that from my earliest infancy I found always a
strong inclination to books and letters. As our college education in
Scotland, extending little further than the languages, ends commonly
when we are about fourteen or fifteen years of age, I was after that left
to my own choice in my reading, and found it incline me almost
equally to books of reasoning and philosophy, and to poetry and the
polite authors. Every one who is acquainted either with the
philosophers or critics, knows that there is nothing yet established in
either of these two